At the very end of the Erie Canal, there are several bridges
which are low enough to keep many of our looper friends from completing the
western portion. We were able to do the
entire length because of our foldable arch, which brings us under the 15 foot
bridge heights. North Tonawanda is only
a few miles from Lockport, and is where the Erie Canal empties into the Niagara
River. Turning right and going down the
river isn’t really an option, because of a little feature called Niagara Falls!
We pulled into Smith Boys, and tied up on their outside
dock. Dan had quite a bit of maintenance
catch-up he wanted to do, and I wanted to go home for a family fix! My sister was coming for a visit from
Colorado, so I wanted to be there. Also,
I was so ready to have some quality time with my son, Travis, and his family.
Dan and I talked every day about what he was doing, what we
were doing at home, and I really missed him.
But, it was a time that I really needed!
Back to when we first arrived:
We got the boat settled and secure, then went on our bicycles looking
for something to eat. We saw a place
close by called “Betty’s”, which had a picture of Betty Boop (cartoon
character) and a sign that said “Best Roast Beef in the Two Cities”. The two cities would be North Tonawanda and
Tonawanda. We decided to give it a
try. Well, of course, we haven’t sampled
any other roast beef in that area, but I venture to say it would not be the
best of anywhere. What they had done was
buy roast beef sliced for sandwiches, put it into a crock pot, added water and
let it cook all day (beyond the done stage at which they had bought it). Now, with the water added, they could say
they have “au jus”. Oh my. They put it on a ‘weck’ bun, which is a western
New York thing, where they brush the top of a hamburger bun with butter and
roll it in coarse sea salt and caraway seed.
We were underwhelmed.
Now, I have a word or two to say about the bar itself – run down
place with run down looking men. North
Tonawanda was another down and not-quite-out town like we have been
seeing. Only North Tonawanda isn’t
trying hard to attract tourists or boaters. The people we met, as always, were friendly
and nice. I feel bad for folks who live
in a town where there doesn’t seem to be any jobs or reason to live there….
Dan had a chance to explore the town during the 10 days I was
gone – he got a haircut, found a grocery store, had a few meals out. But, mostly, he worked on the boat. He welcomed the opportunity to pull all the
floor hatches up to expose the engines and etc. without worrying about my
falling into the open hatches….which, sadly, I have already done twice. Just call me “Grace”.
When I returned from Michigan, we used the rental car to run
some errands, then took it back to the airport rental car place. We got an Uber back to the boat. Next day appeared to be a nice day, so we
decided to go to Niagara Falls. I have
been there 2 or 3 times before, but Dan, the native Michigander, had never been
there! We got an Uber there (only about
8 miles), and thoroughly enjoyed the day.
We rode the “Maid of the Mist”, which wasn’t the experience I remembered
– I remembered being absolutely deluged by tons of water, but this time we just
got what amounted to a heavy rain. Still
fun, though. Next, we went to the Cave
of the Winds. These days, you don’t
actually go into the cave – it collapsed years ago. But, you do get to walk on stairs and
platforms right next to the water. You
can (but we chose not to) go on to the platform called “Hurricane” platform for
a real drenching! Pretty cool. The Niagara Falls experience is really
amazing – when we exited the 200 foot drop elevator to walk on the Cave of the
Winds area, there was the most dramatic rainbow I’ve ever seen. That, juxtaposed onto the Falls themselves
was really extraordinary!
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|
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|
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| I've never seen this magnificent rainbow! |
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| beautiful, amazing! |
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| couldn't stop taking pictures of it! |
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| Maid of the Mist |
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| I think the color's great on Dan! |
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| amazing |
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| massive wall by the power plant |
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| loving life! |
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| imagine working on building that wall! |
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| more of the structure |
